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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26453317">Land of Monsters and Gods</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/FalconFate/pseuds/FalconFate'>FalconFate</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>My Magnum Opus, a horse-loving bokoblin, and dreams, basically: what if bokoblins are actually complex emotional creatures, local bokoblin cares more about horses than carrying out the evil overlord's bidding, the horse is revived, this is it, with feelings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 06:47:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,557</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26453317</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/FalconFate/pseuds/FalconFate</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nargesh is a young red bokoblin who doesn't want to dedicate his life to killing Hylian swordsmen. He'd much rather frolick in the fields with his dearest friend, Sugith the mare, than follow his brethren into battle to die for a dark power who never wins.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Land of Monsters and Gods</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">It is the noble duty of every bokoblin, big or small, red or gold, to serve the Allmighty Ganon. For serving Ganon, every bokoblin would be rewarded handsomely in the new world of Malice that would surely blossom in the glory of his victory—a victory that, one day, would surely come to pass. One day, the pesky Hylian swordsman with his godly blade would fall, never to reincarnate; one day, the beautiful goddess-blood Hylian princess would turn from light to dark, her bloodline ended.</p>
<p class="p1">To hasten the arrival of that day, the bokoblins were bound to their noble task: serve the Allmighty Ganon’s will and kill the Hylian swordsman, should he ever appear.</p>
<p class="p1">(Of course, bokoblins are notoriously bad at telling Hylians apart, so they attack every Hylian they see—one day, they reasoned, they would find and kill the swordsman.)</p>
<p class="p1">But the swordsman, no matter how many times he reincarnated, was mighty. He was quick, strong, and skilled, and always the broken corpses of bokoblins littered the ground in his wake.</p>
<p class="p1">Nargesh the Red did not want to become a corpse. No matter if Ganon the Benevolent would simply raise him once more from the dead, no matter if he would be honored among all bokoblins for facing the terrible swordsman, Nargesh was far too fond of life to find any pleasure in the idea of dying over, and over, and over, and over…</p>
<p class="p1">All Nargesh wanted was to live, and ride his pony.</p>
<p class="p1">Nargesh had been born into a cavalry family. His father, another red bokoblin, and his mother, a fearsome black, spent the days of Nargesh’s childhood terrorizing the North Hyrule Plain, wielding great clubs and spiked bows and trampling pitiful Hylian travelers beneath the hooves of their steeds. They rode wild horses without a thought for their care or health, capturing them and breaking them and riding them only as long as they needed them, before turning them loose once again. No other bokoblin on the plains knew or cared to learn about each individual horse’s strengths, content to spur them to death or injury.</p>
<p class="p1">It made Nargesh sad, for he loved his pony. A quiet, steady little mare the color of a cloud-scudded sky. He called her Sugith—not in front of other bokoblins, for he knew they would look at him strangely, but when it was just the two of them, alone, frolicking in the blooming meadows.</p>
<p class="p1">Of course, he couldn’t frolick in the fields forever. He would soon be grown, and would have to take his place among the ranks of his family. It was the last thing Nargesh wanted, for he knew it would put Sugith in danger, not just himself—and the Glorious Ganon did not bring horses back hale and whole, nor did the skeletons he saved ever live in the light of day. Nargesh longed to leave his family’s plain and strike out on his own.</p>
<p class="p1">His father was against Nargesh leaving, for he wished Nargesh to stay and become a great warrior of the plains, make a name for the reds. His mother, on the other hand, thought that perhaps Nargesh <em>should </em>travel—to other bokoblin cavalries, to “show them how the North Hyrule Plains bokoblins get it done.”</p>
<p class="p1">That idea, at least, was a little more exciting. They had met some travelling bokoblin riders before, most from the grasslands surrounding Illumeni Plateau, or from the Aldor Foothills, but some from as far as the Lanayru Wetlands or the shores of Lake Hylia. One rider, a blue cousin on his father’s side, had come from the Fural Plain, and told them hair-raising tails of a greedy god who stole horses’ souls from Allmighty Ganon, reviving them for Hylians willing to pay a hefty price.</p>
<p class="p1">But soon enough Nargesh was grown. His mother wasn’t even there to suggest he travel; she had been recently killed by a lucky traveler, and the moon would not be full to revive her for another week yet. Without delay, his father gave him a tooth-riddled club, dragged him and Sugith onto the plain, and placed him in the middle of the herd, with no chance of slipping away to frolick.</p>
<p class="p1">And so there Nargesh stayed, shuffled around by his brethren, trying to keep Sugith away from all the other horses, who were all so angry and frightened that they were more than willing to kick out or bite at one of their own.</p>
<p class="p1">From the middle of the group, Nargesh hardly had to use his club at all, even when they ran down goats and deer for their meat. Days passed this way, Nargesh being all but useless in the middle of the herd, hunting and carousing. Nargesh’s legs grew sore and blistered, but he refused to leave Sugith, and the other bokoblins didn’t bother much about it—though they gave him funny looks when he shared his apples with his pony.</p>
<p class="p1">Nargesh almost grew to like the boring monotony.</p>
<p class="p1">That is, until he met his first Hylian.</p>
<p class="p1">Nargesh had seen them from afar, of course, but his father’s tales of their horribly sharp weapons and hatred for Allmighty Ganon had instilled in him too much fear to get any closer. This one was small, dressed in a bright blue tunic, with golden hair and a sword that gleamed wickedly.</p>
<p class="p1">It was Nargesh’s father who caught sight of him. “SWORDSMAN!” he screamed, kicking his horse roughly in the ribs and charging the Hylian. Around Nargesh, the other bokoblins exploded with screams of rage and quickly followed suit, such that Nargesh was forced to do the same—</p>
<p class="p1">
  <em>HISS—SHTING!</em>
</p>
<p class="p1">Screaming in pain ahead of him, Nargesh’s father toppled from his mount, disappearing in a burst of black and purple smoke before he even hit the ground. Before Nargesh could register his own shock, or move on sensibly to fear, three more arrows found their marks around Nargesh, killing a blue and knocking two blacks from their horses.</p>
<p class="p1"><em>One swordsman can do this? </em>Nargesh thought, frightened.</p>
<p class="p1">His brethren, if they were scared, did not show it. They did not slow or stop or turn their horses away, and Nargesh was forced to follow them. His gaze locked suddenly with the Hylian’s, and those remorseless, utterly determined blue eyes sent a chill shiver down Nargesh’s spine. Nargesh could only close his eyes and lift his club, and hope he could land a hit—</p>
<p class="p1">But with a sudden fierce whinny from Sugith, the whole world turned upside-down, and Sugith’s defiant neigh became a sharp, shrill scream of pain, and Nargesh was tossed to the ground, startled yet unhurt, and he opened his eyes to see—</p>
<p class="p1">—to see Sugith, rearing, her eyes rolling into her head as she fell to the ground, silent and still.</p>
<p class="p1">Dead.</p>
<hr/>
<p class="p1">The whole world had fallen away from Nargesh. He heard nothing. There was no battle raging around him, no Hylian swordsman nor bokoblin rider; there was nothing at all but Sugith’s empty eyes, staring at him sorrowfully from where she lay, a goose-feather arrow embedded in her chest.</p>
<p class="p1">Nargesh cradled her head with trembling three-fingered hands, brushing her mane from her eyes with a delicate touch that was ever so gentle. She didn’t seem real beneath his hands; she <em>couldn’t </em>be dead. Not his dearest friend.</p>
<p class="p1"><em>We’ll never frolick together in the fields again, </em>Nargesh realized, and his heart shattered at the thought. The rest of the world—the thunder of hooves, the screams of battle, the smell of trampled grass and fresh blood—suddenly crashed into him, and he could only howl in the throes of this impossible agony, for he was suddenly, impossibly, horribly <em>alone</em> in this cold, callous world.</p>
<p class="p1">He could only weep as the battle raged around him, eventually moving past him, fading into the distance before disappearing altogether. He couldn’t bring himself to move from his spot, even as his beautiful Sugith faded away, melting into the grass she came from and disappearing.</p>
<p class="p1">Gone.</p>
<p class="p1">Forever.</p>
<p class="p1">Even if the Great and Marvelous Ganon would bring back her bones, would Nargesh recognize her? Would she know him, the friend she had died for? For now he understood—she had taken that arrow meant for <em>him.</em></p>
<p class="p1">She had traded her own life for his, and now Nargesh would never forgive himself.</p>
<p class="p1">But wasting away here, until the blood moon brought his family back and killed him for letting the swordsman get away, would not bring her back, nor repay the debt Nargesh now owed his friend.</p>
<p class="p1">For Ganon could never bring Sugith back in all her glory… so perhaps Nargesh should turn to other gods.</p>
<p class="p1">The thought frightened him almost as much as the swordsman’s eyes, but Nargesh steeled his nerve. He <em>would </em>find his way to the Fural Plain, and he <em>would </em>find the terrible heretic god, and Nargesh would plead and pray and pay whatever price was asked of him—even if it would mark him a traitor to his own kind.</p>
<p class="p1">It wouldn't be much of a loss. He had never much liked his own kind.</p>
<p class="p1">Sniffling, wiping at his wet eyes, Nargesh finally stood. He had been kneeling in his sorrowful vigil over Sugith's grave for so long that his legs were stiff and unresponsive, trembling beneath him as he tried to stand. Nargesh walked unsteadily to the road, looked both ways for any Hylians, and turned south.</p>
<p class="p1">He would get there.</p>
<p class="p1">He would find the Horse God.</p>
<p class="p1">He <em>had</em> to.</p>
<hr/>
<p class="p1">On Nargesh's first night on the road, it stormed.</p>
<p class="p1">He huddled beneath an outcropping of rock in the Breach of Demise, his nubby hands pinning down his floppy ears to try to muffle the horrible thunder that rattled his bones. It was too wet to make a fire, and Nargesh had no wood or flint besides. There was no sleep to be found for a lonely bokoblin that night.</p>
<p class="p1">The next day, Nargesh kept forging south. He had to jump off the road and hide in the bushes from Hylians no less than three times, and waited till dark to cross Jeddo Bridge. He slept that night in a copse of trees in Nima Plain, watching the horses graze in the moonlit field beneath Satori Mountain. There was no strange glow on the mountain that night, though Nargesh had sometimes seen it from his home.</p>
<p class="p1">The next day, Nargesh dared to venture into the ruins of the Hylian park on the hill to gaze at the statue there. The horse whose image had been captured in stone seemed fierce and proud, nothing at all like his gentle Sugith. Nargesh didn't stay long.</p>
<p class="p1">As he left the park, Nargesh caught sight of a horse on Safula Hill whose coat was perfectly, gleamingly white. The stallion eyed him from afar, and tossed his head proudly, but Nargesh noticed he was alone, separate from the herd in the meadow. Recognizing that same loneliness he himself had felt so often, Nargesh gave the stallion a respectful distance.</p>
<p class="p1">After crossing Manhala Bridge, Nargesh waited until dark to sneak past the stable nestled in the hills, and slept that night in the shadows of the Great Plateau. The next morning, he hugged the base of the cliffs, avoiding eye contact with the moblins and other bokoblins he passed as he did—though he did, accidentally, meet the gaze of a strange Hylian, who gave him a wicked, knowing smile. With a shudder, Nargesh recalled his mother's stories of a small group of deadly Hylians dedicated to the resurrection of the Allmighty Ganon; this could be one of them in disguise.</p>
<p class="p1">After another night in the rain, and nearly sleeping on top of a talus, Nargesh came to the vast Bridge of Hylia. He eyed it nervously; it was very, <em>very </em>long, and he was but a weak red bokoblin. If he met a <em>Hylian </em>on this bridge, he would surely perish, and be brought back to life on the North Hyrule Plain at the next blood moon, making all his journey so far for naught.</p>
<p class="p1">Yet cross the bridge he must. Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Nargesh stepped onto the cobbles, setting off across the bridge at a brisk jog. Once again he avoided the gazes of the three lizalfos standing at attention, set on the other side of the bridge, and he was almost there, he was almost—!</p>
<p class="p1">A shadow swallowed Nargesh whole, stopping him in his tracks. Somewhere above him, something gave a low, gutteral sigh, and a sudden gale nearly lifted Nargesh off his feet.</p>
<p class="p1">Terribly frightened, but as of yet unhurt, Nargesh dared crane his head to look up, and was greeted by a most wonderous sight: a sinuous ribbon of white scales edged in green, haloed in crackling green lightning, and utterly serene in pure indifference to Nargesh. The dragon wove through the air, weightless as a dream, dipping into the lake with a great froth, and Nargesh could only watch, enchanted.</p>
<p class="p1">After what seemed like an eternity, where, briefly, the pain in Nargesh's heart was not so sharp, the dragon finally rose from the water and drifted away into the sky. With a sigh, Nargesh turned back to the road, hoping he still had time to cross before a Hylian came to the bridge—before he stumbled over <em>something </em>and spilled onto the cobbles.</p>
<p class="p1">Wincing in pain, Nargesh sat up. He turned around to see what he could have possibly tripped over, and was met with a very strange sight: a pile of thick, oddly-shaped green tubers. Carrots.</p>
<p class="p1"><em>Endura </em>carrots, specifically. Nargesh picked one up and sniffed it experimentally; he had often fed swift carrots to Sugith, but didn't really like the taste himself. Endura carrots seemed much the same. He decided to pocket these ones, in the hopes that he would be successful in his mission, and be able to give one to his dear friend.</p>
<hr/>
<p class="p1">Not two days later, Nargesh found himself, at long last, on the Fural Plain—but to his alarm, he saw no sign of his blue cousin, nor any bokoblin riders at all. Unnerved, and dispirited, Nargesh camped on the field as far away from the stable as he could manage, mournfully watching the horses splash around in the Haran Lake. When he slept, he dreamt that he was playing tag with Sugith, but she was always too swift to be caught, and the closest he got was a brush of her tail, the coarse hairs slipping through his fingers like the finest unattainable silk.</p>
<p class="p1">The next morning, Nargesh awoke sad and unhopeful. How would he find this Horse God, with no friendly face to guide him? He should just give up now, turn around and go back to the Northern Plain, and hope his family will accept him.</p>
<p class="p1">Slumping dejectedly, Nargesh forced himself to his feet, and turned back toward the Faron Woods.</p>
<p class="p1">But something stood in his way.</p>
<p class="p1">Nargesh froze, caught in the gaze of two enormous, glowing yellow eyes. The eyes belonged to a face, painted on carved wood, surrounded by spikes. There was an eeriness to that face, that <em>mask, </em>an empty eeriness that gripped Nargesh tight and made him as still as stone. The mask had such a strong, strange presence, that, for at least a minute, Nargesh didn't even notice that there was a creature <em>wearing </em>it. Only when the creature's arm gestured did Nargesh see it.</p>
<p class="p1">When it seemed the mask, or the creature wearing it, didn't actually want to hurt him, Nargesh relaxed enough to become curious. What <em>did </em>the masked creature want? He turned to look where the creature was pointing; in the morning light, he could see a break in the cliffs, a fair distance from the stable.</p>
<p class="p1">When he turned back, the mask and the creature were both gone. Nargesh looked all around him, but there was no sign of their presence, no proof they had been there at all.</p>
<p class="p1">They had seemed, Nargesh thought, to be friendly. He decided to take the chance that the strange masked creature did want to help him, and turned towards the break in the cliffs.</p>
<p class="p1">He found himself in a ravine, with steep cliffs on either side of him, and a path that wound between them. At a fork in the road, he stopped, uncertain, and took great deep sniffs of the air. From the right fork, he could smell salt, and smoke: a campfire, most likely Hylian.</p>
<p class="p1">From the left, though it was shadowed by stone, he could smell… grasslands. A meadow's breeze. The sweet, wonderful smell of a horse's coat.</p>
<p class="p1">Nargesh took the left fork.</p>
<p class="p1">Deeper and darker the shadows grew, looming over him. Nargesh thought he felt the cliffs passing judgement on him. He crossed a rickety old bridge spanning a deep, ominous pool, and his fear of the water set every muscle trembling as he went.</p>
<p class="p1">When Nargesh finally crossed the bridge, and rounded another bend, he was met with an incredibly strange sight: an enormous <em>something </em>that looked like it could be a plant, maybe, had bloomed in the seat of a stone grotto. It held a pool of shimmering water which threw strange, brilliant reflections on the surrounding stone, and in the water on either side of the path leading to the bloom, Nargesh could see strange flowers glowing in their depths. From somewhere, nowehere, and everywhere at once, there played a whimsical melody that gave Nargesh the thought of wonderful, carefree adventures with Sugith.</p>
<p class="p1">This <em>must </em>be the lair of the Horse God. It <em>must </em>be! Nargesh had found his way here, and now he must do what he came here to do.</p>
<p class="p1">Despite his trepidation, Nargesh very determinedly stepped right to the edge of the shimmering pool. No sooner had he looked into the pool to see his own rippling reflection than the ground beneath his feet trembled, the water roiled, and an <em>enormous </em>creature broke the surface with a rattle and a splash.</p>
<p class="p1">The creature loomed over Nargesh's head, a white-maned horse-head mask spinning atop a skeleton draped in a gown of saddle-blankets—it looked, Nargesh realized, like all the Hylian stables he had passed on his journey to find this place.</p>
<p class="p1">A shrill, otherworldly voice thundered in Nargesh's head: "WHO WAKES ME FROM MY SLUMBER? WHO DARES DISTURB MALANYA, PROTECTOR OF ALL HORSE-KIND?"</p>
<p class="p1">Nargesh had to fight his instinct to curl up into a ball and hide. With great effort, he drew himself up as proudly as he could, and yelped, "It is I! Nargesh, of the—"</p>
<p class="p1"><em>"AIEEEEEEE!" </em>shrieked the Horse God. "YOU! You are one of GANON'S creatures!" The mask suddenly swooped low, and its empty sockets pinned Nargesh in place. "Why should I not STRIKE YOU DOWN MYSELF?"</p>
<p class="p1">Nargesh flinched. "No! Please!" He lifted his trembling hands, showing that he carried no weapon. "Please, I have come… I have come to beg a favor of you, Horse God."</p>
<p class="p1">"A favor?" the Horse God repeated musingly, its head ticcing with a sound like a rattlesnake. "A favor, you say? And what sort of favor could I, God of Horses, grant <em>you, </em>Creature of Malice?"</p>
<p class="p1">Tears welled in Nargesh's eyes. "My friend," he whimpered. "I called her Sugith. She fell in battle, to save me. I came here, because I thought that you could bring her back."</p>
<p class="p1">The Horse God said nothing for a very long, horrible moment. Then a pair of hands, not connected to any arms that Nargesh could see, swept gracefully through the air, leaving trails of glowing purple in their wake. "Yes," the Horse God murmured, "yes, I sense her. I can see that she loved you dearly, strange one." The mask tilted with a rattling tic, and Nargesh felt the peculiar sensation of his very soul being carefully examined, before the Horse God nodded decisively. "Very well. I can bring your companion back… for a price."</p>
<p class="p1">Nargesh felt his little bokoblin heart leap with joy. "Name it!" he said eagerly. "I will pay <em>anything!" </em></p>
<p class="p1">The Horse God chuckled. "Indeed! Well, you see, I have a hankering. If you would bring me a vegetable, a rare and wonderous vegetable, I will bring your companion back. You must bring me… an endura carrot!"</p>
<p class="p1">"Oh, like this one?" Nargesh asked, digging out one of the carrots he had found on the Bridge of Hylia.</p>
<p class="p1">"YES!" cried the Horse God, snatching it out of his hands. "<em>Yes, </em>this will do quite nicely!" The Horse God cackled over its new treat, before it seemed to remember where it was. "Ahem. Where was I… ah, yes!"</p>
<p class="p1">With a complicated dance between its hands and its head, the Horse God wove its magic; and before its fountain, in a column of light, a beautiful mare with a coat like a cloud-scudded sky appeared with a joyful whinny. "Here you are, strange creature," the Horse God said proudly. "Your companion, whole and hale and returned to you."</p>
<p class="p1">With a cry of joy, Nargesh leapt to Sugith's side, cradling her head in his arms as she whickered happily. "Thank you, Horse God!" Nargesh cried—but when he turned back to the fountain, the Horse God had disappeared.</p>
<p class="p1">Tearful and grateful, Nargesh hugged Sugith for a little while longer, before jumping onto her back and leaving the Horse God's fountain behind, chasing the sunset and a brave new world.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I spent five straight hours on this y'all… once I started writing I could. not. stop.</p>
<p>In other news, ANYONE ELSE EXCITED FOR HYRULE WARRIORS??? I SURE AM!!!</p>
<p>Let me know what y'all think! As always, comments and kudos are much appreciated!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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